A girl and her love of nail polish

Posts tagged ‘NYC’

12 Days Of Christmas Challenge: Snowmen

Day 4 of the 12 Days Of Christmas Challenge already? How did that happen? Today’s prompt is snowmen.

Christmas/Winter nail art: Snowmen

A few days ago I featured Rescue Beauty Lounge Piu Mosso on the blog. I used that same mani as the base for this one, so there is a little bit of wear. This is two coats of Piu Mosso plus one coat of Poshe fast-dry top coat to start, and then I added one coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust. The Piu Mosso made it look to me like a night scene, so I thought the China Glaze Fairy Dust would almost look like stars or maybe snow.

Christmas/Winter nail art: Snowmen

I then used a large dotting tool to add the snow across the bottom of each nail with OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls. I used the same color to do the first layer of dots for all of the snowmen. I then added a second dot to each that was just slightly smaller than the original using NYC French White Tip. My working theory was that since the OPI is a white with a gray tinge that it would provide a little shading compared to the stark white NYC color. Not sure that came through in the finished product, but that was the idea.

Christmas/Winter nail art: Snowmen

I used a small dotting tool to create the scarves with Essie Very Cranberry, and then used Orly Liquid Vinyl for the coal buttons and eyes.

I finished it off with one coat of Poshe.

Christmas/Winter nail art: Snowmen12 Days Of Christmas Nail Art Challenge



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Holiday, NOTD

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30 Day Challenge Day 20: Water Marble

I’ve made it to Day 20, two-thirds of the way through the 30 Day Challenge. Hooray! The challenge themes are real-deal from here on out, starting with today’s water marble.

water marble: cult nails manipulative and revlon fashionista

Water marbles are tough for me. I’ve played around with them a few times, including this earlier attempt where I definitely learned a few good lessons. I think that the success or failure of a water marble is largely dependent on the polish choice. If the polishes don’t look good or behave well, you’re sunk (pun intended)!

It took me a little while to pull together the color choices on this one, but I have a lot of blue polishes that I really love, so I decided to go that route.

water marble: cult nails manipulative and revlon fashionista

I started with two coats of NYC French White Tip and used it plus Cult Nails Manipulative, (pale aqua with shimmer) and Revlon Fashionista (deep teal). Revlon Fashionista is my untried for 30 Days of Untrieds. Just having an untried in here violates the water marble rules I set for myself after my last attempt, but that’s just the way it goes when you’re in the midst of a challenge!

water marble: cult nails manipulative and revlon fashionista

For this one, it was actually the untried Revlon Fashionista that performed the best. The drops easily spread out across the top of the water. Both Cult Nails Manipulative and NYC French White Tip refused to spread very much. In general the whole thing dried pretty quickly, so I had a few tries that fell apart before I even got to finish drawing the design. I used a dotting tool to add some Revlon Fashionista.

water marble: cult nails manipulative and revlon fashionista

And cleanup was a real bitch on this one. The blue polishes, primarily Revlon Fashionista, really didn’t want to come off of my skin. Sorry for the mess, I really did try very hard to clean up but to no avail.

30-Day Challenge, 30 Days of Untrieds

Please visit some of the other bloggers that are participating in the 30 Day Challenge this month. I know we will need a lot of encouragement to get through! Click here to see them:



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30-Day Challenge, Indies, NOTD, Water Marbling

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30 Day Challenge Day 19: Galaxy Nails

30 Day Challenge Day 19: Galaxy Nails

I’ve been looking forward to Day 19 of the 30 Day Challenge because I’ve been wanting to try galaxy nails and needed the kick in the pants to do it.

Galaxy Nails nail art manicure

By most accounts, creating galaxy nails is a simple nail art project. Well, it is and it isn’t. The technique is simple: dab and dot. Ok, got it. The challenge comes in that it requires a fair amount of restraint. Less is definitely more when it comes to galaxy nails. I read several blog posts and watched many video tutorials, all of which said basically the same thing: be sparse, don’t overdo it with the sponging, leave some space.

Galaxy Nails nail art manicure

But even fully armed with that knowledge, I found it difficult to know when to stop. I think a few of these came out rather nicely; a few are kind of meh. Overall, it was fun and I will definitely do it again.

Galaxy Nails nail art manicure

I used a lot of different colors here, but not all of them were used on every nail. I started with two coats of Orly Liquid Leather, a high-gloss black creme, for the base, followed by one coat of Poshe fast-dry top coat. When it was dry, I sponged on various combinations of these with the corner of a makeup sponge:

  • OPI DS Mystery (untried):  purple-black jelly with gold shimmer
  • Orly Meet Me Under The Mistletoe (Untried): green/gold duochrome
  • Orly Stone Cold (Untried): bright medium blue shimmer
  • Zoya Wednesday: dusty turquoise creme
  • Cult Nails Enigmatic (Untried): eggplant with strong shimmer
  • A-England Morgan Le Fay: sheer white iridescent shimmer
  • Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Wine Not (Untried): berry red with shimmer
  • Kiko 359 (Untried): peach creme

I finished each nail with one coat of Jordana Lilac Hearts. It’s a glitter polish with large purple hearts, but I just left those at the bottom of the bottle and only used the glittery base to get the effect of lots of small stars. Then I put on on a few (too many in some cases) dots with NYC French White Tip using a small dotting tool.

Galaxy Nails nail art manicure

Finished up with one coat of Poshe and called it a night.

30-Day Challenge, 30 Days of Untrieds

Please visit some of the other bloggers that are participating in the 30 Day Challenge this month.
I know we will need a lot of encouragement to get through! Click here to see them:



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30-Day Challenge, NOTD

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30 Day Challenge Day 7 – Black & White: Dice With A-England Morgan Le Fay

I almost didn’t make it through Day 7 of the 30 Day Challenge without having to buy another bottle of nail polish (*the horror!*). It wasn’t the theme of black & white that was the problem; it’s the fact that I’m simultaneously doing 30 Days of Untrieds.

I only have one bottle of black polish, which I’ve already used, so if I couldn’t come up with a suitable untried white, I would have no choice but to go buy something new.

Luckily (unluckily?), I was saved by A-England, which also happens to be the brand I featured yesterday for the violet day of the 30-day challenge. Loving this brand, so easy to apply, and beautiful!

Dice Manicure With A-England Morgan Le Fay

This manicure includes: two coats of NYC French White Tip under two coats of A-England Morgan Le Fay (untried), with Orly Liquid Vinyl. I finished it with one coat of Poshe fast-dry top coat. I liked the shimmer that A-England Morgan Le Fay brought to the table. There’s more going on here than if I had used a basic white creme.

Dice Manicure With A-England Morgan Le Fay

The dice theme is pretty easy, which is good for me since I am not that comfortable with dotting tools yet. I actually used the head of a pin as my dotting tool, and it worked pretty well for me. I didn’t get them totally uniform in size, but I’m working on it. The Daily Varnish has a great post on DIY dotting tools, if you want to check it out.

Here’s a quick iPhone photo of what I did with my left hand … too complicated to take a one-handed photo with my other camera!

Dice nail art with A-England Morgan Le Fay

Have you used any household items as dotting tools? Let me know what you’ve had success with.

30-Day Challenge, 30 Days of Untrieds

Please visit some of the other bloggers that are participating in the 30 Day Challenge this month. I know we will need a lot of encouragement to get through! Click here to see them:



Category:

30-Day Challenge, Indies, NOTD, Swatches

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30 Day Challenge Day 1: Red – Savina Ruby and Hearts

Here we go! Today I’m embarking on my first-ever blog challenge, and actually not just one but two. I’m going for both the 30 Day Challenge and 30 Days of Untrieds, inspired by Rachel from Polished Criminails, who is doing the same.

Savina Ruby, Savina Hearts

Day 1’s theme is Red. Not only does this manicure include untried colors for me but also an untried brand, Savina, which is available at Nordstrom Rack. This mani includes:

  • Savina Ruby (untried)
  • Savina Hearts (untried)
  • NYC French White Tip (untried)

Savina Ruby, Savina Hearts, NYC French White Tip

Savina Ruby, Savina Hearts
For my nails I used two coats of Savina Ruby, followed by one coat of Poshe fast dry top coat. On the accent nails, I used three coats of NYC French White Tip, one coat of Savina Hearts and one coat of Poshe.

I didn’t think of myself as a fan of red nail polish, but I actually liked this one quite a bit once it was on. It’s more of a jelly polish with a red shimmer. It went on very smoothly and seemed to dry pretty quickly, though the finish was a little bit bumpy. Definitely needed the Poshe.

Savina Ruby, Hearts

White polish can often be tricky, and NYC French White Tip was no exception. First coat was extremely streaky, second mostly covered, third did the trick. I was a little disappointed with Savina Hearts. Since the bottle is jam-packed with heart-shaped glitter, I hoped it would go on with decent coverage. But that wasn’t the case for me. I had to fish out and place the glitter.

I tried dabbing; that didn’t work so well because I was just getting lots of the base with none of the hearts. In the end I grabbed a toothpick and used that to place them on the nail. It turned out a little messy.

Savina Hearts

Next time I will try to apply a coat of Savina Hearts that has no glitter at all, just so I can build up a good base of the iridescent shimmer first, and then fish out and place the hearts.

What do you think? Any tips and tricks for applying polishes with large glitter?

Please visit some of the other bloggers that are participating in the 30 Day this month. I know we will need a lot of encouragement to get through!

30-Day Challenge, 30 Days of Untrieds

Click here to see all of the other bloggers that are participating in the 30 Day Challenge:


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30-Day Challenge, NOTD, Swatches

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